Cinefórum-Clásico

Eddie Dryhurst: Well the beginning of the 1930's found me at Worton Hall Studios, Isleworth, where I was to make a picture for -well in association with Edward Whiting for MGM, quota purposes of course. It was to be shot without sound, and I think I'm right in saying it was about the last silent feature picture to be shot in this country. However, Worton Hall, while we were preparing the picture, I became increasingly aware that there was a great shortage of funds down there. The studio manager, a fellow called Dick Pankhurst who was there I think through nepotism of some kind or another, he looked increasingly worried. However, the time came to start shooting and start shooting we did, but after about two days, I got a warning, I forget through whom, that the electricity supply was about to be cut off because the studio hadn't paid the bill! That was a bit disconcerting. Well indeed it was cut off one Friday evening I remember, justabout the time we finished shooting for the weekend. And I was in a hell of a state about this of course, so was Whiting. We went to Pankhurst and asked what the hell was he going to do about it. We would be in on Monday as usual and we would expect to beable to shoot. He said, "Leave it with me, you'll be able to shoot." He said it in a very worried voice. And I said to Whiting on the way back to town, I said, "I don't like this much. I think we're going to find this studio is going to be closed down or something." However, when Monday morning came Whiting was there ahead of me and he met me coming into the building. He was flushed with excitement, and he says, "It's all right Edward, we're going through it all right, nothing to worry about." I said, "Oh they've paid the bill have they?" He said, "No they haven't paid the bloody bill! What do you think? They've rented a fairground engine!" You know one of those old things with the high funnel? And the engine, a steam engine. He said, "They've got that." I said, "What do you mean? A thing like that won't generate enough electricity for us." He said, "Well apparently it can. It's chugging away now and everybody's happy." Well when I got down nearer the sound stage I saw this thing, chugging away, belching smoke [chuckles] and I had to accept it there was no other alternative. So we started shooting that day and in the afternoon a worried Stiffey Cooper[?] who was on the camera came to me, he said, "Look, the smoke's getting in here, it's getting to be very foggy," he said, "I can't shoot from here if it gets like this much more." So I said, "Oh gawd!" So we decided to move the engines into a different position so the wind would blow the smoke in another direction. Anyhow to cut a long story short, after about two days of this I'd had enough. The artists were having to use oil lamps in their dressing rooms and so on. And I went to Eddie Whiting and said, "Look this has got to stop, we've got to have the electricity supply restored." He said, "Well what can I do about it?" I said, "I'll tell you what you can do. I don't know how much the bill is, it's presumably a few hundred quid, you can go to Dick Pankhurst and pay him half a week's rent or a week's rent in advance so that he can use the money to pay the bill with!" He didn't like that idea but I finally persuaded him that was the only way out of it, and that was what happened. It came to the day when the engine belched its way out of the building, much to my relief! [Chuckles] That's a true bill, though it sounds incredible today doesn't it!
Roy Fowler: Well I'm wondering, was that typical of the smaller studios in those days? Were they all operating on a knife-edge of solvency, hand to mouth?
Eddie Dryhurst: Well I must say it was resourceful, I would never havethought of it, but Pankhurst did. I don't remember anything quite as drastic as that.
Roy Fowler: Who owned Worton Hall then, do you remember?
Eddie Dryhurst: I don't remember who owned it at that particular time. I do know that it was later taken over bya French-Canadian called Edward Gourdeau he had some money and he bought it and he renovated it and put sound in and so on, that was in about 1933 I think.
Roy Fowler: Yes. And was it properly sound-treated or again...?
Eddie Dryhurst: Pardon?
Roy Fowler:Was it properly soundproofed?
Eddie Dryhurst: Yes as well as they could, yes it was I suppose.
Roy Fowler: Yes right. So there was a serious effort to run a small studio?
Eddie Dryhurst: Oh yes indeed, yes.
Roy Fowler: Right, okay. Well following that, what happened to the film?
Eddie Dryhurst: Well the film was made for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. I don't know what they did with them, they were delivered to them, after that what happened to them nobody knew.
Roy Fowler: You didn't go to see it?
Eddie Dryhurst: No. Well I can tell you this much, that the Empire, Leicester Square, they had about five screenings a day of their pictures. They started in the morning, about eleven o'clock I think and the first, there was one screening only of Woman from China that wasat ten a.m.
Roy Fowler: To the cleaning ladies?
Eddie Dryhurst: To the cleaning ladies, yeah.

Lobo López escribió: ↑

16 Abr 2021 12:18

Con todo, es una rareza que merece dedicarle los setenta y tres minutos de su metraje y luego dedicarnos a criticarla o a reivindicarla, siquiera sea mínimamente. La dejamos en vuestras manos.